A journey of the mind afloat in space and time. An emotion capture. Arresting images and some great poems and lyrics.

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Tag Archives: ISIL

Yesterday the USA dropped the largest ever non-nuclear weapon ever used, the GBU-43/B. They dropped this massive piece of ordnance in a cave system in Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. The stated intent was to deny a system of caves and tunnels to ISIS fighters. A truer intention is Donald Trump flexing his muscles for the Russians and the Chinese to show he is a serious military threat. But that too is secondary, because his primary audience is the American people. I’m sure the people of the USA feel a little bit safer today knowing that several miles of caves in Afghanistan have been destroyed. (That last sentence is called sarcasm)

Today I have three images for you, all stolen from the Guardian photos of the day. Image 1 is of US troops marching in step at a NATO rally in Poland. Hey Mr Putin, look at those gung ho young American boys, marching in neat lines. We have big bombs too. Boo Yah!

The second photograph is from further east, in the city of Mosul, Iraq. The smart uniforms and the neat lines of troops give way to the true face of war. A man pushing his daughter through a blasted landscape in a wheelchair. It is pathetic. As you sit down to your Easter Sunday dinner spare a thought for what awaits this family on their table. What did he do to deserve this fate?

The final image is of a pretty girl taking a selfie in a field of flowers. It could almost be in Holland, with the bright blossoms in neat lines, except for the fact that the girl in question has a machine gun on her back. Nir Yitzhak is a kibbutz on the border of Israel with the Gaza strip. If ever there was an image of the absurdity of war this is it. Page down to a war poem by Yeats!

On being asked for a War Poem: By William Butler Yeats

I think it better that in times like these A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth We have no gift to set a statesman right;

He has had enough of meddling who can please A young girl in the indolence of her youth, Or an old man upon a winter’s night.

I can’t let the recent Paris and Belgian terror attacks pass without making some comment.

The seed of French difficulty lies in the Sykes-Pichot agreement after the Great War, when Britain and France carved up the Levant between them. France took possession of Lebanon and Syria.

Under Turkish Ottoman rule the middle east was stable. Perhaps not exactly happy, but stable and mostly content.

Since Western powers took control of the Levant the Middle East has been a disaster. At what stage do Western “Powers” hold up their hands and admit they are unable to achieve anything positive in the region?

Hate causes many problems, but it solves none. The French solution to the Paris attacks is yet another bombing campaign. Do they expect that to succeed in stabilizing the region? Truth is bombing campaigns are a short term solution. Politicians thrive on short term solutions. The voting public has no patience for long slow strategies that eventually deliver the desired results.

We, the voters in the democracies of the West are individually and personally responsible for what is happening in Syria. We have caused the misery and conflict that has fostered the rise of terrorism. We have raped these countries of their resources. We heat our homes and fuel our cars with their oil.

Do you want to feel safe from terrorism? What do you believe will “cure” terrorism?

Option 1: Attacking Syrians and making them poorer, more fearful, killing their children, razing their homes and driving them into refugee camps, or

Option 2: Rebuilding the Syrian nation, making the economy prosper, raising the standard of living, rehousing the population, building schools and libraries. Western nations actively buying up the products of Syrian production including their agricultural produce and their industrial output.

Option 1 involves spending a lot of Western money on bombs and missiles which we drop on Syria. This is good for weapons manufacturers. They are lobbying for this option by paying lots of money to the “right” political candidates. It is also good for the rich capitalists who hold shares in the weapons companies. In Syria it creates a new generation of ‘terrorists’.

Option 2 involves spending Western money too. But it is actually a whole lot cheaper than option 1. Unfortunately it delivers no value to the companies who make weapons. The rich shareholders of the weapons companies see no return. The money is just ‘wasted’ on a lot of poor Arabs.

People who have jobs, who own their own homes, who have food on the table and who can envisage a future for themselves and their families, those people are not terrorists. Terrorists are not born, they are created. We create them when we take their homes, their food, their lives. If you want to recruit terrorists I suggest you look in a refugee camp.

In the next election, when the candidates come knocking on your door, ask them how they are going to make you safe from terrorism. Ask them will they choose Option 1 or Option 2. Let’s take another road.

Paris Winter; by Howard Altmann

That we can breathe and not forget
our dreams entirely. In the cold sun

the warmth of timelessness. There is
panic, rest assured, so much beauty

stirring, I want to touch all that
contains me. We know the questions

and the light shifts without a word.
In the clouds, a philosopher’s chair

rocks. In the riverbed, the buff
and lathe of stones, change glistening

past. And from the afternoon, drops
of her monthly blood drip down

the stairs, the kitchen table, all of her
unopened bills, a cold floor that timed

us. O, the ins and outs of memory
breathe, too, images at rest in the dark